such a wide variety …

CIATs, which I mentioned in yesterday’s post, consist of three phases: standing presentation in front of three separate judges, a drive with several “tests” of the drivers’ skill, and a cones competition. This year’s Celle CIAT featured nearly forty competitors in several divisions: ponies, single horses, horse pairs, tandems, horse teams, and a lone five-in-hand of horses. Like the CAA’s own Sporting Day of Tradtional Driving, this type of event celebrates traditional driving and (mostly) antique vehicles.

To my mind, one distinct advantage of this type of competition over CDEs is that there’s a wide variety of vehicle types, sizes, and styles on display … which makes the event both interesting and educational for spectators. And speaking of these, there were quite a lot of people on the grounds of Celle’s palace, watching Saturday’s presentation competition:

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A.J. and I stationed ourselves in different spots, and we both had fun photographing the various turnouts as they stood in front of the palace to be reviewed by two judges: first by Christian de Langlade (France) and then by Raimundo Coral Rubiales (Spain). The third review, in front of judge Reiner Wannenwetsch (Germany), took place in the main arena at the Landgestüt Celle. Here are some of our favorite photos from among the pony and single-horse divisions.

I’m busily working on the October issue of the magazine, so I’m going to streeeetch our vacation photos out throught the rest of the week! Stay tuned for more presentation (pairs of horses tomorrow, then tandems, teams, and the five-in-hand on Thursday), to be followed by photos from the drive on Friday, the cones competition on Saturday, and the awards ceremony (in the pouring rain!) on Sunday.